Babka

Ingredients

Dough

• 500 gstrong white flour
• 70 gsugar
• 10 ginstant yeast
• 1½ tsp salt
• 3eggs
• 150 mlwhole milk, warm
• 150 gunsalted butter, softened, in cubes

Chocolate filling

• 200 gdark chocolate, chopped
• 120 gunsalted butter
• 80 gicing sugar
• 40 gcocoa powder
• ½ tspsalt

Syrup

• 100 gsugar
• 80 mlwater

Directions

1. Mix the flour, sugar, yeast and salt, add the eggs and warm milk, and knead 5 minutes to a rough dough.
2. Now add the softened butter a few cubes at a time, kneading until each addition disappears before adding more. This takes 10–12 minutes in a mixer and the dough will look broken and greasy in the middle of it. Keep going; it comes back together, smooth and glossy, and pulls cleanly from the bowl.
3. Prove 1 hour 30 minutes at room temperature, then refrigerate overnight. Cold dough is the only way to roll and cut babka cleanly — at room temperature the butter smears and the layers merge.
4. Melt the chocolate and butter together, whisk in the icing sugar, cocoa and salt, and let it cool to a spreadable paste, about the thickness of soft peanut butter. Too runny and it escapes; too stiff and it tears the dough.
5. Roll the cold dough to a rectangle about 40 by 30 cm and 4 mm thick. Spread the filling to the edges, leaving 1 cm clear along one long side, then roll up tightly from the other long side into a log.
6. Chill the log 20 minutes, then cut it in half lengthways with a sharp knife, exposing the layers. Twist the two halves around each other, cut sides facing up, and lay in a lined loaf tin.
7. Prove 1 hour 30 minutes until puffy and the twists have relaxed into each other.
8. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 32–35 minutes. It is done at about 88°C (190°F) in the centre; the deep colour is normal and it will look darker than you expect.
9. Boil the syrup ingredients for 2 minutes and brush the whole hot loaf generously the moment it comes out. This is what keeps babka moist for days and gives the lacquered top.

Technique

• The overnight chill is not a convenience, it is structural. Warm babka dough cannot be cut and twisted without losing the layers entirely.
• Do not skip the syrup. An unsyruped babka is dry by the next morning.
• Roll tightly. Air pockets in the log become caverns in the baked loaf.

Substitutions

• Cinnamon filling — 150 g soft brown sugar, 2 tbsp cinnamon, 100 g soft butter — for the older Ashkenazi version.
• Nutella or a thick poppy-seed paste both work and need no cooling step.

Variations

• Krantz cake, the Israeli bakery name and form.
• A version with a streusel crumb over the top instead of syrup.

History

An Ashkenazi cake reworked in Israeli bakeries into a heavier syrup-brushed form now exported back to New York and London.

Frequently asked questions

What is Babka?

Babka is a bread & pastry from Israel: twisted yeasted loaf marbled with chocolate or cinnamon, sold in bakery slabs. An Ashkenazi cake reworked in Israeli bakeries into a heavier syrup-brushed form now exported back to New York and London.

How long does Babka take to make?

Babka takes 45 min plus 3 hr rising and overnight chilling of preparation and 35 min of cooking. The recipe makes 2 loaves. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Babka?

Yes, within limits. Cinnamon filling — 150 g soft brown sugar, 2 tbsp cinnamon, 100 g soft butter — for the older Ashkenazi version. Nutella or a thick poppy-seed paste both work and need no cooling step.

What is the most important thing to get right in Babka?

Prove 1 hour 30 minutes at room temperature, then refrigerate overnight. Cold dough is the only way to roll and cut babka cleanly — at room temperature the butter smears and the layers merge.